Intravenous support poles are used in hospitals and like locations to support fluids, monitoring devices and pumps and the like which are used for delivering and controlling the delivery of fluids to patients. In the most basic form intravenous poles are utilised to support bags containing intravenous fluids at a suitable height above the ground (which is usually approximately 1.9 meters) to allow for the gravitational feed of a fluid into the patient. In other occasions the fluids are delivered to the patient by means of a pump and therefore the fluids do not need to be located at specific height above the patient. It is usual to locate the pumps at a position at which they can be readily observed by medical staff which requires them to be put at a position which will approximate eye level to avoid the need for the medical staff to have to bend every time they are required to take a reading or observe the operational status of the apparatus.
Intravenous poles of the form as described above present a significant problem in that because of the high degree of mass located towards the upper end of the intravenous pole they have a high centre of gravity and become inherently unstable. Therefore when a patient is required to move from the bed or is in walking phase, they are required to also move the intravenous pole with all of the associated equipment which is mounted to the pole. In the event that the pole is knocked or the patient loses momentary stability very minimal effort is required in order for the intravenous pole to tip over. In addition, because the only means of support engaging the pole comprises the central pole itself, as the pole is moved over the ground it is often the case that one or more of the castors becomes jammed or engage with an item on the floor which causes the pole to rotate about its central axis and/or to begin to tip.